Songs of the Two Kingdoms
by Megknsis
Summary: Okay...I just saw Maleficent, and all I have to say is...wow. These little drabbles are my response, all categories, just little snippets of all types.
1. On My Own

Songs of the Two Kingdoms

**Okay, first of all…I just saw Maleficent today, and…gahsklfk I am a little in awe. I had no idea what to expect, but I was nonetheless blown away. Even though I can now never watch Sleeping Beauty again ****omg**

**Anyway, I read Neonails "Keep on Playin' My song" and got an idea to do my own version of the iPod shuffle drabbles challenge. In it, the writer has to hit shuffle, and then whatever song comes on, you write a little drabble based on that song. And since I just saw Maleficent and it's on the brain, and I need a way to get it out of my system enough so I can actually work on my freaking stories…**

**These little drabbles range from angst to tragedy to romance to hurt/comfort to happy little fluffies…you name it. Read and review…but have mercy…I've never attempted something like this before.**

**I own nothing…probably fortunate. I would never have been able to retell Sleeping Beauty so incredibly.**

**On My Own**

_**Carole Bayer Sager and Burt Bacharach (I think)**_

_On my own, pretending he's beside me_

_All alone, I walk with him till morning_

_Without him, I feel his arms around me…_

The great horned wings drooped, brushing the wet grass behind the lighter bare feet of their owner. Deep green eyes gazed through the mists towards the distant castle. She searched, hoping to see a figure, but her eyes could discern nothing moving.

"Where are you, Stephan?" she whispered, but there was more resignation than longing in her tone. She had come here for several weeks now, but still Stephan had not come. Two months ago, he had kissed her. Two months ago, Maleficent had lain awake all night, unable to sleep because of the smile on her face.

But that was awhile ago, and two months had dulled the sharp edge of need and hope. That in itself hurt more than anything.

_And I know it's only in my mind…_

_And lthough I know that he is blind_

_Still I say, there's a way for us..._

"Maleficent!" The soft hesitant male voice rang through the night. It didn't carry far, so Stephan raised it a little. "Maleficent?"

She dropped down onto the ground with a single flap and a whisper, but the dark-haired man turned. His eyes widened, then dropped. He shifted guiltily on his feet.

"Maleficent," he licked his lips. "I've come to warn you. The king's men seek to kill you."

Maleficent looked deeply into the face of her old friend and first love. The years had not treated him kindly, hardening his face and lending an unpleasant furtive look to his eyes. But his voice was still that of the timid boy lost in her woods, the shy young man who two years ago could barely muster the courage to kiss her, but had done it at last.

Maleficent sensed that Stephan's heart had not stayed entirely faithful. He was not the same person he used to be. But then again, neither was she. And he had come back tonight. And though the fairies called her their strongest, their warrior, her heart remained defenseless and weak when it came to Stephan. She could never resist him, and he knew it.

Maleficent turned, wings sweeping the ground as she moved towards the trees, silently inviting Stephan to follow.

_I love him_

_But every day I'm learning_

_All my life_

_I've only been pretending_

_Without me_

_His world will go on turning_

Fiery pain seared and throbbed through Maleficent's shoulders. She tried to shift, but it only increased.

Gritting her teeth, Maleficent forced her body upward, but then the sense of loss and _wrongness _tore through her. She turned, but realized she couldn't see her wings.

Panic stronger than pain gripped Maleficent's body. She tried to move her wings, but they did not respond. Nothing was there to respond. She turned, frantic, but saw…nothing. The scars in her shoulders and the man who should have sat by her side told their own tale, undeniable and unforgivable. She was trapped, an outcast, marked, ruined, fettered forever. And it was all because she'd been fool enough to trust, to love, to think that a human would care for her. In return for her heart, Stephan had given her only pain and injury and humiliation.

Maleficent moaned as she felt phantom pains from her lost wings. Sobbing wails rose into agonized screams of heartbreak and betrayal and indescribable anguish. The lack of her wings couldn't surpass the worse pain of the bloody hole where her heart once beat.

_I love him_

_I love him_

_But only on my own_


	2. Love Song

**Love Song**

_**Barlowgirl**_

"You told me my parents were dead." Aurora searched the fairies' expressions for any sign that it had been a mistake. But instead they told her the very thing she'd feared most.

"Perhaps you'd better sit down, dear."

_The tension is thick in the air_

_Making it hard to see_

_I fear what is to come_

_And what will become of me_

Aurora dashed out the door, eyes burning, throat aching. She could barely breathe, but she didn't care. She had no clear plan of action, only an instinctive knowledge and need for the one person she had left: her godmother.

Suddenly she stood before her, the same as ever. Her face is impassive, but her voice holds a compassion that makes Aurora want to run straight into her arms.

"Come here."

"I didn't know I was cursed." Aurora's voice breaks up in sobbing. She'd never exactly thought her three aunties were all-knowing…but at least she'd _trusted_ them. She relied on them for everything she ever knew about herself, and in an instant, that trust died. The people she'd known the longest, trusted most, had deceived her for years. Aurora had never experienced such betrayal in her young life, and the bitterness of the first breaking of trust cast shadows over her joyful, innocent soul.

"They said a wicked fairy cursed me. Her name was…I can't remember." Aurora strained to recall what they said. "Maleficent."

Her godmother falls still. An imperceptible change passes over her cool green eyes—small but definite, a barrier going up.

"Do you know who that is?"

Still her fairy godmother says nothing. But her eyes hold much more. She obviously has no intentions of speaking.

A horrible suspicion begins to grow in Aurora's mind. It couldn't possibly be…this is her _godmother, _the woman who's taken care of her, watched over her all her life. But…so did the fairies. They just weren't quite so careful and attentive.

A tendril of ice curls through Aurora's soul. The stillness in Maleficent's form, the unspoken depths of knowledge in her hooded eyes…it gives away more than it hides. And gradually, Aurora breaks out of her daze just enough to speak.

"You're…," an iron hand closes around her heart. Her two great pillars, her aunties and her fairy godmother…both have lied to her all along.

"You're…," the name forms slowly but falls from her lips like a stone. "Maleficent."

The faery's green eyes flash into life for the first time.

"Yes." She begins to move closer, but Aurora scrambles backward, heart pounding.

"Don't touch me," she gasps. Her throat can barely let out breath enough to allow those words passage. Everything she ever believed in is crumbling into a thousand pieces around her, except…her parents. Her parents and the castle rear themselves up as an unexpected refuge. She turns and runs, but the ground shows her passage as the tears fall in Aurora's wake.

_You've never failed me before_

_Why do I feel betrayed_

"There's an urchin at the gate, claims she's the princess." Aurora shifts nervously on her feet, unsettled by the collection of hard-faced shifty-eyed men. She wasn't sure what kind of a reception she expected, but it certainly wasn't this.

The tallest man turns around. His eyes widen in astonishment, but he doesn't seem suspicious. His robes and the deferential way the other men turn to him set him apart as the leader…which would mean…

Aurora edged away from the knight's grasp. "Hello, Father." Her voice was soft, but rang out in the hall like a hopeful child's.

Slowly the king's eyes light in recognition, though they lack gladness.

"You look just like your mother," he said softly.

Aurora's happiness bubbled up, irrepressible. Finally, she had come home! Through impossible trials, she had found love, and people she could believe in at last.

"Father!" She dashed forward and threw her arms around his waist before anyone could stop her.

The king did not hug back.

As Aurora moved back, she saw a peculiar hardness in his eyes.

"They brought her a day too early!" he announced, then turned to the nearest man as if Aurora had ceased to exist. "Lock her up."

Aurora couldn't even protest as the men led her away. She had done nothing but hug her father. What about that deserved locking up? And what did they mean about bringing her a day too early? Her father didn't even seem glad to see her…more like his long-lost only daughter was a gift from someone he didn't want but had to find a place for.

_I crave your voice_

_Help me not fall away_

Aurora paced the room, growing increasingly bored and lonely, rare emotions for her. In the forest, life surrounded her. Now cold walls and richly embroidered drapes replaced it. She tried to focus her mind on her father's strange coldness and abrupt dismissal so she wouldn't have to see the look in Maleficent's eyes when Aurora realized the truth, or think of how the fairies had lied to her.

"_You're Maleficent."_

"_Yes."_

Aurora shook her head to clear it, then pushed her way along the tapestries. As she shoved one aside, she realized she could see a door.

Aurora gazed at it. She felt a strange, inexplicable compulsion to open the door. Being her curious self, she did so.

The maid Aurora nearly collided with gasped, "Princess!" in a rather scandalized manner. But Aurora didn't pay any attention. She walked down the adjoining hallway, but as she moved, she felt more and more detached, as if she were watching from the outside as another person performed the actions.

_If I closed my heart to you now_

_The darkness would have its way_

The ancient wood of the door groaned a baritone complaint as Aurora approached. By now, she felt like a disembodied spirit, with only a tiny part of her awareness making commentary, whispering forebodings of danger. But the rest of her ignored all protests. She was incapable of listening.

Bits of wood littered the cellar. As Aurora eyes adjusted to the dim light, she beheld a spindle sitting before her, long gleaming needle beckoning her inexorably forward.

The miniscule portion of her that still obeyed reason shouted at her, imploring, trying to stop her. This was exactly what her aunts had warned against. But Aurora couldn't stop, even as she moved forward, reaching out to touch the needle, pressing down upon it, raising a single drop of blood.

Then the floor spun towards Aurora as she collapsed.

_Cause you are all I need_

_And all that I want is you with me_

The golden designs wavered into focus over Aurora's head. She blinked, her vision clearing, but the design remained.

She turned her head and saw Maleficent standing over her, but the tears staining one ivory cheek like liquid silver, and the stupefaction and joy in her green eyes shut down any recriminations or anger.

Aurora recalled the spindle she had touched, and as she looked around, the words of the prophecy as old as her body floated into her mind. She saw only Maleficent in the chamber.

And in that moment, Aurora realized that love comes in more than one form, and the love of family is no less loving or true than the affection between two lovers.

"Hello, godmother," she whispered, and the smile which spread out to adorn her face made the older woman's heart shatter all over again, only this time, the pain produced balm, not poison.

_Sing me a love song again_

_Say the words that heal my heart_

_Sing me a love song and then_

_Let your words remind me who I am_


	3. Into the Open Air

**Into the Open Air**

**This one wasn't technically being shuffled at the time...but I was listening to the song and it struck me as excellent for this. So...I wrote it down and included it with the other Songs. Just because I'm nice :)**

_This love it is a distant star_

_Guiding us home wherever we are_

_This love it is a burning sun_

_Shining a light on the things that we've done_

"I know you're there." Aurora's eyes scanned the shadows, and focused on Maleficent's hiding place. The queen of the Moors held perfectly still.

"Come on out. Don't be afraid." Aurora's voice called, as unassuming and friendly as her lovely face.

Maleficent almost smiled at the notion of coming out. The girl had not been told who she was, but something about horns and black seemed to unnerve people. They didn't seem to like things they weren't accustomed to seeing.

"I am not afraid." Her voice glided like dark velvet out of the shadows.

"Then come out."

"Then you'll be afraid."

Aurora's eyes smiled for her mouth, with the naive certainty if a child. She responded simply. "No, I won't."

Maleficent finally made a decision. She was tired of hiding, and she didn't mind scaring those humans. And after all, the girl seemed incapable of ordinary fear. She'd snarled at her once, as a baby. And all the wretched thing did was giggle.

Slowly, with deliberate steps, Maleficent stepped around the tangled branches and moved steadily out into the light. She had no notion of how cold and proud her ivory sculpted face looked.

Maleficent waited for the wide eyes, the horrified exclamations, and then headlong flight. But she felt considerably startled when Aurora did none of these things. Instead she gazed at Maleficent with wide-eyed, cheerful curiosity. Then all at once, the face lit up in recognition.

"I know who you are." Her curious face took on a knowing look.

Maleficent quirked a brow. "You do?" She replied, managing to suppress a sense of surprised amusement. This was a smart one, wasn't she?

Aurora's face lit up in a pretty smile. "You're my fairy godmother."

Maleficent's eyebrows rose a fraction of a degree. "What?" She replied, not allowing Aurora to see her nonplussed.

"You've looked after me all my life." Aurora grinned at her. "I always see your shadow, and I know you're always there."

Maleficent tried not to let her face show her shock. So she had had that slip when Aurora was about seven, and she actually _saw_ Maleficent. The girl just ran into her, and then proceeded to climb her like a ladder and explore her horns in the most peculiar and rude manner. After a couple minutes' shooing, Maleficent managed to get rid of her. And she'd appeared in her window when she was a baby...but for God's sake...the girl was a child then. She'd been more careful than that, and then it was always tree branches, or Diaval.

Speak of the devil (Maleficent didn't dwell on the inadvertent pun) here he was now.

Maleficent didn't see why she shouldn't introduce Diaval, so she snapped her fingers. The raven grew and his feathers vanished into the black clothing of a beak-nosed man.

"This is Diaval." She pointed to her servant, who smiled and bowed at Aurora. Trust a man to fall for a pretty face, Maleficent thought acidly.

"I know you." Aurora looked at Diaval with the utter confidence of one meeting a friend, then she smiled at him. Her cheeks flushed, making her look prettier when she smiled. "Pretty bird."

Diaval grinned and bowed.

"Oh...," Aurora spun in a slow circle. Her eyes grew wider as she took in the luminous fairies, the gnomes, the glowing lake.

"This is amazing!" Her enthusiastic shout carried. "Oh, it's exactly like I've always imagined! I-,"

Maleficent waved her hand abruptly, and the girl fell back, her eyes closed once more.

Diaval looked curiously at her in that way Maleficent had particularly come to dislike. "What?" She snapped.

"Nothing."

But it wasn't quite nothing. And besides the urge to shut the child's mouth, Maleficent had felt something else, deeper than annoyance. It took her back to her free childhood, and the days she'd shown Stephan around the Moors. And it had terrified her.

_I tried to speak to you every day_

_But each word we spoke the wind blew away_

Maleficent could only take Aurora out of her room at night. The stupid pixies weren't very attentive, but she had to grant they weren't absolute nincompoops. If Aurora disappeared every day, they just might search for her, and if they were desperate enough to fly...Maleficent couldn't have that at all. Even she felt a little sick of people always cringing away in terror. Even Diaval had a certain deference towards her as his mistress and savior.

He did ask her why she kept bringing Aurora back to the Moors. Maleficent gave some vague answer about, "Well, the Moors do get a little dull when you're almost alone," and then immediately changed the subject. Truthfully, she couldn't explain why she wanted to bring Aurora back. The child would never stop chattering.

But she did address Maleficent with the respectful term of 'godmother', and she never seemed to fear any of the fairies...even the larger ones. Maleficent wasn't sure whether to blame courage or naivete, but she had to respect a human who didn't hate whatever they didn't understand. She almost reminded Maleficent of another young girl who used to greet the inhabitants every morning and wander around like it was her playground of joy. It roused strange feelings in her heart to see Aurora laughing with the gnomes, running laughing through the trees, gazing at the fairies who lit the night with a look of pure rapture.

And after all, this amusement didn't cost Maleficent anything. She'd grown used to the girl's exuberance, looking after her for sixteen years, and to tell the truth, she almost welcomed the change from routine.

_How did we let it come to this_

_What we just tasted we somehow still missed_

_How will it feel when this day is done_

_And can we keep what we've only begun_

Aurora slowly reached up. It was the first hesitation she'd shown. But gradually, she moved her hand up to caress the creature's bumpy snout.

The fly hummed and nestled into her hand. Aurora smiled, and continued to stroke.

Maleficent felt that curious twist as she watched the little scene. So many of these had happened over the course of several weeks, and it was beginning to affect her. She'd actually unbent enough to throw mud at Diaval when he hit her in a playful mud fight between him, Aurora, and the earth gnomes.

She couldn't explain her new feelings. She wasn't used to them. When she lost her wings, Maleficent had unconsciously shut up her own feelings, tried to kill them so she wouldn't ever be hurt again. But this girl, her enemy's daughter, was finding a way to breach her defenses and free a few of the sentiments she thought she'd lost. And the worst thing was that Maleficent couldn't bring herself to truly do anything about it. If she put the girl to sleep and sent her back, she found herself bringing her back by the next day. And no willful hardening of her heart could keep her from feeling lighter at the sight of that innocent, brilliant smile.

_And now these walls come crumbling down_

_And I can feel my feet on the ground_

She tried to fight it, but every time she saw Aurora, it got harder. It had been so long since she'd known love. Her only friend was Diaval, and everyone else either qualified as enemies or subjects. But this girl made her want to smile and have fun again. She brought up memories of what it was like to feel, to laugh, to not hate and brood. And...it was easy. Nursing revenge had satisfied her once, but Maleficent was growing tired. She'd watched the child all her life, never realizing that her adopted daughter was affecting little changes in her heart that would someday crack her she'll wide open. By making her go through the motions of being a parent...she was turning her into one.

The one defense she had-her memories of Stephan. The boy had made Maleficent feel the same things...but he'd betrayed her. Lure of the throne, power and avarice had weakened his character.

But Aurora had none of that. The flighty fairies had good, kind hearts, and they'd raised Aurora to be the same way. She would reach sixteen untempted, untainted by the world...and then what? If the curse were fulfilled, she would fall asleep...if it were not, she would go to the castle, to her *father* and there the rose would be shut up, until her bright innocence withered and rotted, faded. The thought actually made Maleficent's blood boil. It would be better for the girl to fall to the curse than to come under Stephan and his wife's influence.

Then a third option suddenly sprang to Maleficent's mind. It was fantastic. Ridiculous. But...if the girl could be persuaded to come here...she loved the Moors and everyone in them. If she came to live here when she turned sixteen, where Maleficent could keep her forever away from her father, raise her the way she always had tried to do…

It seemed too good to be true. But...

"When I'm older, I will move here and live in the Moors. Then all the fairies will be my friends."

Maleficent fell still. She gazed at the girl's youthful, smiling face, lit by the stars. A tiny spark of hope which had long since main dormant began to wake into flaming life.

She glanced around momentarily. Diaval was nowhere in sight. It would be a wise policy to have a potential successor, and...oh, the hell with it. She could save that for Diaval.

Maleficent studied the distant trees before she finally managed to reply.

"Why wait until you're older?" She asked quietly.

The child turned, eyes glowing with joy. And Maleficent's lightening heart had nothing to do with the beauty of the moonlit evening.

_Can we carry this love that we share_

_Step into the open air_


	4. Imperfection

_A/N: Because of Milarion1234 who planted the idea in my brain…and the song. This is for you…and me._ _Yes, I am beginning to like these two…_

**Imperfection**

_**Skillet**_

Bare feet shuffled over earth, pushing through the dying reeds. She who once ruled the skies now walked with slow, wincing steps over the grass.

The black raven circled over the head of his mistress, observing her with curiosity. The faery had changed him into something big, earthbound, and wholly new, but permitted him to regain his old form for a time, and those cold green eyes had shone strangely with mercy upon him.

Diaval had never met anything like this woman. He'd never really met anyone except other birds, though. Humans either chased him off or tried to kill him. But this person had done nothing of the kind, though she had put him through the most uncomfortable, mortifying transformation of his life.

She was not like the humans who chased and trapped him, and the curving horns in her head were the most visible testament to that. But as unusual as she looked, her features held a strange fascination, with their wondrous delicacy, and the large emerald eyes a shadowy testament of pain.

Her regal carriage could not hide the stumbles, or the limp as she walked, and it seemed to grow all the more graceful to make up for it. She walked rather slowly, as if she had trouble balancing. When Diaval asked if she was hurt, Maleficent's face had closed up quite suddenly, and she responded in tones of pure ice,

"No."

Diaval flinched from her reply, and allowed it to rest there. It was none of his business. But he did wonder, why everyone in the Moors, the place Maleficent called her home, had wings, but her. And he wondered why he'd seen her hiding in the ruins, eyes widening with terror at his approach, and why he'd seen her staring off towards the distant castle with a look of longing and bitterness and pure hate.

_You're worth so much_

_It'll never be enough_

_To see what you have to give_

"Why? What's so important in that castle?"

Maleficent's eyes darkened, the warmth vanishing out of them. "I wish you," she responded in measured, emotionless tones, "to find out how…Stephan is faring in my absence." She described the man Diaval was to find and transformed him into a raven. "My wings," she called him. The bird in Diaval's nature would not like to be restrained, but the man found himself feeling rather proud and satisfied in being helpful to Maleficent. So he soared into the night.

It did not take him long to find the man he sought, but Diaval had a little trouble believing his own eyes when he did.

He had been told to expect a peasant, a servant. Instead he found the man enthroned in the hall of the king, about to take a wife.

_How beautiful you are_

_Yet seem so far_

_From everything you're wanting to be_

_Tears falling down again…_

When Diaval landed, Maleficent's eyes gleamed with frosty light. "Well?" She snapped her fingers.

Diaval felt a sudden curious reluctance to reveal his find, but nothing could have prepared him for the reaction.

"He betrayed me," Maleficent's voice deepened and rose in volume with every word, "so he could become _king_?"

She threw her head back and yelled, a cry of rage and loss and sheer frustration, shooting skyward faster than the glowing green energy which burst out of her hands. Diaval cowered back, as he couldn't fly. In that moment, he couldn't help wondering how exactly Stephan had betrayed Maleficent. But he was no fool, and as the years turned, he had less and less ability to fathom what could possess a man to turn on someone like _her _for the common, pretty woman in the throne room.

_You're worth so much_

_So easily crushed…_

_No one escapes_

_Every breath we take_

_Dealing with our own skeletons,_

_Skeletons_

The gnomes bowed and the fairies bobbed and quivered as they paid homage to the black figure who filled the great chair at the center of the Moors. She hid her long hair beneath a wrap and the collar of a black cloak, so that her head and horns rose alone from her body. Diaval would never have dared to say such things out loud, but he privately wished that Maleficent had kept her hair free. She was still beautiful, but it was a more austere kind of beauty, and with her hair out she looked less frightening and yet more wild and free, even younger.

He was her servant, however, only that, and he learned early on how to keep his private opinions and deeper sentiments to himself. It wasn't as if expressing them would earn him anything but a cold look, anyhow, though Diaval even found himself, after he was done apologizing and shaking, remembering the way Maleficent's eyes flashed with a dry mouth and weak knees.

As the years rolled on, he never stopped serving her, helping her. He could never have explained why he never complained, even when he got little enough in return—at most, he would have stated, "she saved my life, and I owe her my services". But he couldn't stop watching her, wanting to help her, be her constant companion. As a raven, he used to be enough for himself. But now she'd trapped him. She'd taken him out of a world of ignorance, and brought him into _her _life, and now going back would never solve anything…he would remember.

* * *

"She'll starve with those three looking after her."

Diaval turned in undeniable surprise. Maleficent hated Stephan, and hated worse his child. He'd been there when she cursed Stephan. But now…she appeared to be concerning herself over Aurora's welfare.

Maleficent turned and saw him. Her tone sharpened. "What?"

Diaval squawked. Translated, it meant, "Nothing."

Maleficent shook her head.

_How special you are_

_Revel in your day_

_You're fearfully and wonderfully made_

Diaval blessed the day those three bumbling fairies had brought Aurora to the cabin. For the first time in years, Aurora actually helped lighten the spirits of her greatest enemy. Lord knew the enemy needed that.

Diaval had seen her on enough bad days to know. He hated it when Maleficent gazed off towards the castle, when she could only think of revenge. And he alone knew that some of the shadows under her eyes formed because Maleficent had stayed awake all night brooding. He hated it because the little glimpses he saw of humor, of brightness, of a softer, less bitter side, made him want more. God knew she deserved better. Maleficent had saved his life, and when she hurt, Diaval hurt.

He never left her. When Maleficent stalked the Moors in a foul mood, Diaval alone possessed nerve enough to come within ten feet of her. And he flew over Aurora's cabin, making sure the baby didn't starve, constantly bringing reports of her to make those perfectly sculpted features soften and lift a little, see the flash of dry humor from those beautiful green eyes. He lived for those little things. It was pathetic, and he knew it. But he couldn't do a thing about it. Maleficent had trapped him into her life, and now he couldn't have left even if he wanted to. And even on the bad days, Diaval didn't want to. He cared for his mistress, and he loved seeing her happy, even when her smile glinted with malice. But she had no idea how much he cared for her, so that Diaval could only keep his thoughts to himself, and watch, and do his duty.

_You fall to your knees_

_You beg, you plead_

_Can I be somebody else_

_For all the times I hate myself?_

* * *

Diaval had come upon her one night, in the early days right after Maleficent had heard of the child's birth, and stopped short to see tears staining the faery's ivory cheeks. He stopped dead, unsure of himself, watching in the shadows in an agony of indecision.

Maleficent stopped, and raised her head. Her hand rested on her shoulders, where her robes had been pushed aside to reveal scar tissue. Diaval knew staring was rude, but he couldn't help himself—the brutal testament of the scars held his eyes inexorably.

Maleficent's voice floated to Diaval, deep and mellifluous, beautiful even though choked with tears.

"What did I do, Diaval? What's wrong with me? Tell me, am I a monster?"

Diaval managed to move his mouth enough to swallow. Crows didn't get lumps in their throats, he thought, but they couldn't speak either. Humans could.

He hardly realized what words came out of his own mouth, but when he recalled it afterwards, Diaval felt fairly certain he'd said what he thought he'd said.

"No, Maleficent. There's nothing wrong with you. You're-," he never figured out what he might have said if some instinct, even then, hadn't restrained him: beautiful, perfect, wonderful; something he'd thought more and more lately but would never dare to say. But at last, he managed, "Stephan is the monster. Not you."

_Your failures devour_

_Your heart in every hour_

_You're drowning in your imperfection_

For once, Maleficent didn't react in anger. Her eyes welled, brimming with melted diamond as she turned her perfect face into the moonlight to look up at Diaval.

He never quite got it clear in his head who made the move, but he definitely remembered the moment after. His Mistress, his queen, the woman who never smiled except in malice, never unbent except to sit, clung to her servant in a crushing embrace. Her body felt surprisingly frail as her back heaved, tears soaking deep into the dark tunic Diaval wore while the once-proud creature, now maimed and scarred, sobbed into his chest.

No other living soul ever saw the incident, and neither ever spoke of it again, but Diaval carried those minutes like a talisman, as he lay down to sleep at night and as he flew through the night by Maleficent's side.

Because that night was the reason he stayed by her side, never tiring of helping her for nothing. That one moment, where Maleficent bared her heart, allowed him to see her as vulnerable, broken, was his true reason to love her, and the reason he took such diligent care of Aurora. Because Diaval, the loyal servant, would stop at nothing to heal his mistress so that she could allow herself to be flawed and vulnerable without fear again. He loved her too much to allow her to hide forever.

_Won't you believe, yeah_

_Won't you believe, yeah_

_All the things I see in you_

_You're not the only one_

_Drowning in imperfection_


	5. Respect

_A/N: So...my internet started having problems, so I had to start all over. But here are some more! I never said the length would all be the same either..._

**Respect**

_**Aretha Franklin**_

_All I'm askin'_

_Is for a little respect_

_R-E-S-P-E-C-T_

_Find out what it means to me_

Thistle never got what she was looking for. Despite raising Aurora and keeping the other two at least halfway on task, they never listened to her.

"Our princess Aurora, for whom we have sacrificed the best years of our-,"

Maleficent shot her a single look. The message was clear: _shove it_.

"Never mind."

She declared, she never got any respect for all her work.


	6. Touch the Sky

**Touch the Sky**

_**Julie Fowlis (I tried to look up who wrote it…not sure. So I'm putting this down. Don't sue me.)**_

_**Please, read and review! It doesn't have to be anything super intelligent or even positive...though I'd appreciate it if you were polite and pointed out things you didn't like...or did. Reviews are love, they don't have to be long, but if you read, please, I need to know what you think! I'm not a mind reader :)**_

_When the cold winds are calling_

_And the sky is clear and bright_

_Misty mountains sing and beckon_

_Leading me out into the light_

Fleet feet dashed through undergrowth, scattering petals and golden dust everywhere.

The shriek of excited laughter echoed back to the statuesque dark figure who stood at a little distance. Her guise was dark brown and black, and the curving horns and exquisite cheekbones made for a queenly, imposing figure.

The red lips, however, were turned up into an expression that Diaval had not seen for a long time in his former mistress and savior, a look which softened the perfect ivory features into something more approachable but no less lovely.

The golden, willowy butterfly figure dashed back to her silent guardians who stood watching with amused eyes. But the eyes of the female faery gleamed with a softness that did not cut like the emeralds whose colors they shared, but like the dancing young leaves of spring.

_I will ride, I will fly_

_Chase the wind and touch the sky_

_I will fly_

_Chase the wind and touch the sky_

"Oh, Maleficent!" Aurora's breath came in quick pants through her lips. She was smiling so wide that if her mouth could spread any wider, it might crack her face, Maleficent thought with dry amusement, but no malice. She had briefly known a world without that smile, and she would never go back for any treasure...not even the wings which now curved proudly from her shoulders once more.

"Yes, Beastie?" She inquired softly. The nickname had become a common usage, with the bitter rancor that had conceived it stripped, giving way to a gentle fond humor.

"I love summer." Aurora spread her arms wide and then dropped them to her sides. Her wide eyes focused on the vast, gracious wings which swept the ground at her godmother's feet.

_I will read every story_

_Take hold of my own dream_

_Be as strong as the seas are stormy_

_And proud as an eagle's keen_

"You want something?" Maleficent asked, and Aurora flushed but then smiled. The girl was so easy to read, but this stemmed from her wonderful unpretentious joyfulness and a deep, basic honesty.

"I...," Aurora hesitated, then blurted, "...You said you would take me flying someday. Could you...now? I mean, it's such a lovely day."

Two scarlet lips pursed in an amused smile.

"You did promise her, Mistress." Diaval interjected, hiding a grin.

Maleficent quirked a brow. "So I did," she replied, her voice sinking a little lower, warm with the same light in her eyes.

Before Aurora or Diaval could blink, Maleficent's wings spread wide. She leaped into the air, then caught Aurora under the arms and launched upward.

The younger woman let out a screech, which then transmuted into a whoop of pure delight.

"This...is...ama-aazing!" Her light, clear voice rang through the air.

"Hold on tight!" Maleficent grinned. She soared upward, her wings catching the updraft, but then she angled them and her body and went into a steep dive.

Aurora's laughter rose in pitch and she clutched at her guardian's hands, but her face was transfigured in heady delight.

Just as a collision with the lake seemed imminent, Maleficent leveled out and then swooped upward.

Aurora's gasp of near-terror turned into a whoop.

"_I love this!"_ Her voice rose on the air which had never borne a human before. Maleficent's fierce delighted expression softened a degree.

"I do, too," she responded much softer, speaking half to the air, half to the girl she carried.

_I will ride, I will fly_

_Chase the wind and touch the sky_


	7. Heaven's Light & Hellfire

_A/N: When this song came on, I almost switched before I suddenly got an idea for a contrast that would fit __**perfectly. **__Yes, this is from the Hunchback of Notre Dame. I have a very eclectic assortment of songs on my iPod, from Disney soundtracks and Lindsey Stirling to heavy metal, classic rock, and really obscure alternative stuff, with a dash of country thrown in. (I love those words. Eclectic and assortment. Don't you love them too—oops. Sorry. Writing geek mode off now _ _)_

**Heaven's Light & Hellfire**

**Alan Menken/Stephen Schwartz**

_I knew I'd never know_

_That warm and loving glow_

_Though I might wish with all my might_

"True love." Maleficent's red lips curved up briefly in a bitter smile. "I cursed her that way because there is no such thing."

Diaval looked down so his face wouldn't be seen. She had no idea. After all these years, she still had no clue, and it didn't help reminding himself that he'd made his own bed, _he _had to lie in it-literally.

"It's her fate." He tried not to think of how close she was, so close he could touch her, using all his efforts to keep his face neutral. But he couldn't impose the same restrictions on his voice, and he impulsively blurted out his feelings about the situation, bringing them out as anger on Aurora's behalf.

Maleficent's eyes flashed, and even his thought (beautiful) could not conceal the danger he knew too well.

But Diaval's worry over Aurora, and the feelings he'd hidden suddenly swelled up. And all at once, Diaval looked at the bitter eyes of his mistress, who, incredible as she was, couldn't match the free, beautiful creature she had once been. Suddenly, he didn't care anymore if Maleficent turned him into a raven or a dog. He wouldn't be any worse off than he was now, and concealing his emotions would be effortless.

_No face as hideous as my face_

_Was ever meant for heaven's light_

* * *

The silence weighed on them all like lead, but the tears on Maleficent's cheeks were too much for Diaval to bear.

He turned his eyes away, blinking hard in a last-ditch effort to keep his eyes dry, which of course did no good. He wondered if it were right to even try. If this story, this princess, this tragic tableau, didn't deserve a few tears from a worn-out servant like himself, nothing did.

He raised his eyes to look one last time, and then froze. It wasn't possible. Diaval's human eyes had seen something wrong. There was no way Aurora had just…

"Hello, godmother." The dry voice stiffened Maleficent's shoulders. She turned, eyes wide and wild and wet, staring at the open dark blue orbs and soft smile of a living, breathing, awakened princess.

_But suddenly an angel has smiled at me…_

_I dare to dream that she_

_Might even care for me_

Diaval felt a new surge of energy in his veins. Maleficent's face in this moment more than repaid all the heartache and worry and darkness he'd witnessed in his years of service. It actually allowed him to forget about the perpetual shadow in his heart.

"No true love," he breathed, and his heart fluttered in a desperate, wild hope, as he repeated it, mouthing the words again and again, silently, but in his mind laughing, shouting, singing them in sudden jubilation to a skeptic world.

_My cold dark tower seems so bright_

_I swear it must be heaven's light_

* * *

"I know you're there."

Dark eyes stared at the bars and the great double shadow behind them. Those wings had cast a shadow over the man's whole life. He thought he could forget, marry another woman, but Maleficent still lingered in his mind. Her curse had poisoned his mind as well as his daughter.

_Beata Maria,_

_You know I'm so much purer than_

_The common, vulgar, weak, licentious crowd_

_Then tell me, Maria, why I see her dancing there_

_Why her smoldering eyes still scorch my soul..._

* * *

The queen's dark eyes lingered fearfully upon her guest. The tall, lithe woman who'd shown up out of nowhere as if she belonged there more than they did terrified her.

The guest knew it, and she felt a sense of vicious gratification. Good. Let this little bitch quiver in fear. Let Stefan judge and see who he should have chosen, who he had betrayed. Plead as he might, regret it to his dying day, he would eat his treachery until he choked. Somehow, Maleficent was determined to make him suffer the way she had, feel the pain of her whole damned life.

Maleficent smiled, her grin reminding onlookers of a tiger about to strike. She savored the moment, and the horror in the eyes of the king and queen brought a bitter satisfaction that fulfilled Maleficent to the core as the power of her curse filled the hall.

_Like fire, hellfire_

_This fire in my skin_

_This burning desire_

_Is turning me to sin_

* * *

Stefan loomed over the fallen, shaking woman who clutched her burning wound.

The green eyes would have roused affection and pity in anyone else. But Stefan's heart had long lost all ability to love, to feel pity or healthy shame. He had cut that out of himself the day he robbed his victim of her wings, cauterizing himself far more irretrievably than he had her.

Maleficent looked up into that face. Horror flooded her and she struggled harder. For a fleeting moments she remembered loving this man, waiting for him, trusting him, believing his was still good.

Now, seeing the figure in armor, eyes wilder and burning with hatred fiercer than the flames, that moment died.

They faced each other as two foils, two halves of a coin, two victims of the same fault, a thirst for vengeance, but with opposite results. He, the man who began in ignorant superstition, learned to love the folk he had once feared, and then regressed to guilt-ridden fear, which boiled into hatred, and the woman who began her life innocent and free but allowed revenge to consume all but a single core of goodness, nearly dead but newly waked into fresh life, they were shadows of each other, alter egos. Each of them had been shaped, willingly or no, by the other's choices and their feelings for them. And now they stood, facing each other, defining one another, for the last time.


	8. Titanium

_A/N: Okay…this is the last one before I vanish for the weekend to go to the lake with my best friend. I won't even be back home until Monday…so don't look for more for awhile. But I won't forget about this…fear not._

**Titanium**

_**David Guetta**_

_You shout it out_

_But I can't hear a word you say_

_Talkin' loud_

_Not sayin' much_

The sword began to descend on the defenseless Mistress of the Moors.

Maleficent backed away, heart pumping. For the first time, she faced the possibility of this being her last fight, the end, the final battle.

Then suddenly, the soldiers began to shout for a different reason.

A hurricane wind swept through the hall, as a vast dark shadow that was not Diaval swooped along, fluttering in a strange, mindless way, right towards Stephan.

The king froze. His eyes dilated in an old dread as deep as a child's fear of the dark. Slowly, he began to turn and face the source of the wind.

The wings bowled him over, passed over Maleficent's head. She cried out, not with fear, but with incredulous wonder and relief, and then the wings alighted on her shoulders.

Scar tissue burned and tingled. Maleficent arched her back, and then she felt a click, and a great, glorious fusing. Well-being flooded her body, and oh joy she was whole and she was free and…

_She could fly._

Maleficent cried out again, only this cry was a cry of supreme joy.

_Bulletproof_

_Nothin' to lose_

_Fire away, fire away_

_Ricochet_

_You take your aim_

_Fire away, fire away_

The greatest of all fairies stroked her wings upon the air with anxious care, feeling as if two old friends had returned. Stephan had recovered, and now he stood with great difficulty. He gripped his sword and chain and moved forward, but now Maleficent was no mere earthbound cripple. She could fly, and disuse had not taken the strength from her wings.

She leaped into the air as Stephan struck, and the blast sent men stumbling back. She flapped her wings again, and flew over the men, kicking, shoving, fighting, again, with wine flaming in her veins, for she was strong. Nothing could stop her now, nothing could stand in her way.

Diaval roared her triumph as Maleficent rocketed skyward, her face transfigured into a ferocious smile of absolute bliss. Aurora, watching from the shadows, saw her godmother mounting the air like a great eagle, her dark shape silhouetted against the flames, a queen of battle and destruction, and could only stare in awe.

The lady of the air had come home at last.

_Shoot me down_

_But I won't fall_

_I am titanium_

_Shoot me down_

_But I won't fall_

_I am titanium_


	9. Killer Queen

Chapter 9

**A/N: Okay, first of all...I apologize. Like a million times. I told you guys I wouldn't drop this, but when I recently checked to see when I'd last updated, I saw that it's been...a couple months. All I can say is wow. I feel kind of bad now. I've just had a lot going on, what with college starting up and my multichapter Sky High fic that's really taken off, and a crossover story...yikes.**

**But I figured I should give you guys a few more chapters, then call it a completed fic. I have a feeling I'm gonna start running out of fresh ideas soon, and I don't want all my chapters to start sounding the same.**

**This one came about because the scene when Maleficent makes her entrance in Stephan's castle is one of my favorite scenes EVAAAR. The way she's able to just walk in and own everybody in there was pretty damn awesome. And badass.**

**If you listen to this song, I think you'll get it. This is probably the only one where the scene came into my head and I thought of a song that would go with it, instead of the other way around.**

* * *

**Killer Queen**

**Queen (who else?)**

_She keeps Moet et Chandon_

_In her pretty cabinet_

_'Let them eat cake' she says_

_Just like Marie Antoinette_

_A built-in remedy_

_For Kruschev and Kennedy_

_At anytime an invitation_

_You can't decline..._

Every eye turned towards the slender, regal black shape in the door. A few people stared with ignorant curiosity. But others recognized the woman's face, and especially the horns. And even those who didn't remember her from the Wars clearly feel at once nervous and in awe, as their faces and hushed murmurs indicate. Just as she intended, she has managed to capture the entire room just by walking in the door.

And she knows it.

She doesn't show it, though. She strolls through the room, leisurely as a wildcat in its den, even though she's in the den of the enemy. When people stare, she pretends not to notice. Every movement displays her consummate casualness and poise, as if she were utterly innocent of the electric, mounting tension caused by her very presence there.

Diaval did not possess anything like his mistress's sang froid. The moment they entered, he'd fluttered onto her shoulder and stayed there. Maleficent could feel him trembling, and sensed his raw terror, even in bird form.

She couldn't blame him for feeling that way. As an animal, being around humans made him nervous automatically. And walking into the great hall like this, a room full of people, at least half of whom wanted to kill them both, morphed his emotions from simple nerves into pure unadulterated fear.

It wasn't that she didn't care, or hadn't tried to help. Maleficent had explained to him that this little "visit" was not, in fact, suicidal. Not when she could turn Diaval into any number of things far more dangerous than his original, favorite form, not to mention cast plenty of her own spells. She'd managed to convince him to accompany her, but now he was afraid.

Maleficent knew it, and she regretted it. And she had the sense to realize that something could still happen.

Yet when Maleficent looked around and saw the reactions of every single person she passed, she knew it was worth it.

She hadn't felt a rush like this since she last flew. The pure flood of energy born of the freedom and the clear air, and now the curious, clearly fearful faces, the way they all opened a path for her, and the way every guard reached instinctively for his weapon-both made Maleficent feel powerful, the way she used to feel all the time. Clearly, they still fear her. To them, even without wings, she is still dangerous.

She smiles. Everyone within twenty feet flinches just a little.

Maleficent notices that, too, and the feeling that began ever since she entered the room increases. She realizes that she _loves_ the power trip, the rush she is getting from the people's fear. Even the slight-extremely-element of danger ups the adrenaline.

_Drop of a hat she's as willing as_

_Playful as a pussy cat_

_Then momentarily out of action_

_Temporarily out of gas_

_To absolutely drive you wild, wild_

_She's out to get you..._

At last, she makes it through the crowd of courtiers and stands before the throne. Her eyebrows rise just a little, and her lips part. The gesture would be taken for friendly surprise, but her emerald eyes have turned to ice.

Stephan didn't look so kingly now, she thought with a savage satisfaction, all huddled up on his throne, his face the color of dirty pudding, and his eyes wide and staring. Out of all the people in this room, he has the most reason to fear the woman in front of him. He knows it, and so does she. But now she has come just to make sure that he will never forget, never stop living in terror of her. Today, Maleficent will give him a _reason_ to be afraid.

Maleficent's eyes fell on the woman sitting to Stephan's left—obviously, his new wife. She watched Maleficent with wary eyes, but unlike Stephan, hers did not waver with fear stemming from guilt.

The young queen is very pretty, in a conventional way, with her golden curly hair, rosy skin, and pure blue eyes, and she couldn't possibly look more unlike the woman standing in front of them if she'd tried. Maleficent has a feeling that this choice of Stephan's was no accident.

She herself looks beautiful, perfectly elegant and absolutely menacing in her long jet robes that hug her slender frame, her brown hair pinned up by a tight dark cloth to maintain the flow of black from the foot of her dress to the tips of her curling horns, the horns which make an already tall woman even taller.

If this new queen looks like an angel, Maleficent can only imagine what role _she _plays.

"Well!" She makes a show of glancing around. "Quite the gathering we have here." She pointed a long, ivory finger at each party of which she spoke in turn.

"Royalty, nobility, the gentry-,"

Maleficent glanced towards the cradle, and then stared. Only a great effort saved her from breaking her well-constructed, calm aura. Oh, this made everything _perfect. _She knew everyone avoided her after she lost her wings, but she didn't know three of her old friends and subjects had gone crawling to bow and scrape before _the enemy._

"How quaint!" The strain and scorn in Maleficent's laugh did not sound faked, and with reason. "Even the rabble."

Immediately, she turned and faced the king and queen. Her head cocked just a bit to the side like some predator. However, she spoke next with an almost flippant air.

"I must say, I felt quite…distressed at not receiving an invitation."

Stephan flinched and shifted uncomfortably in his chair. The queen glanced sharply between Maleficent and her husband. Clearly she sensed something else going on in which she was excluded, but she did not have the knowledge to grasp it.

"You're not welcome here." Stephan finally managed to speak, but his voice sounded a little too harsh and shaky. The uninvited guest plainly unnerved him, so badly that, had anyone else walked in, they would have thought Maleficent to be in charge of the kingdom and the situation.

Maleficent resisted the urge to snap back with something sarcastic. Oh, really? The fact that every guard in there looked like he would start hacking anyone in sight to pieces at the first shock to his live-wire nerves hadn't clued her in, even a little?

She bared her teeth in a bright, wide smile, and let out an airy laugh. _Check. And mate. Good pawn, Stephan. Right into my trap._

"Oh, dear. What an _awkward _situation."

Seeing the queen bite her lip unconsciously and Stephan licking his lips and swallowing hard nearly made her smile on its own. She had them all as puppets on the string of their fear, ready for Maleficent to manipulate however she wanted.

And they called those…two_ rulers._

* * *

**More coming! Now I have to start listening again and find a song that inspires me (with something not similar to what I've already done.)**


	10. Safe and Sound

Chapter 10

**Safe and Sound**

**Taylor Swift ft. The Civil Wars**

_I remember tears streaming down your face_

_When I said, "I'll never let you go"_

_When all those shadows almost killed your light…_

She never told anyone about the dreams. She told herself that it was ridiculous for the most powerful of all the Moors' inhabitants to wake sweating, shaking, and sometimes weeping in her leafy bed. But no matter how many times Maleficent reiterated in her mind that everything had turned out all right in the end, no matter how beautiful the days or how good the flying, every few nights would leave her the same way.

_Two months. _It had been two months since Diaval and she had torn Stephan's castle apart. Two months since Maleficent felt the burning venom of iron searing through her veins as the net enclosed and trapped her, two months since she and Stephan had fought from the great hall to the top of the tower and then the slow tumble until he lay stretched out lifeless. Two months since one vindictive moment, a spell, and her own hatred and self-blindness had nearly cost her everything she now cared about.

The thing she couldn't get over was that the whole entire thing pointed, in the end, back to her and that damned curse. If she hadn't cast a spell on Aurora, the princess would never have pricked her finger and fallen asleep, and she wouldn't have come closer to dying than she liked to remember. But then she thought of Aurora being raised in the castle, and what would have come of that, and she knew that it had still worked out for the best. But if she'd only _figured it out sooner…_

_Don't you dare look out your window, darling,_

_Everything's on fire_

_The war outside our door keeps raging on_

Sometimes she dreamt vividly, with terrible clariy. More than once, Maleficent in a dream had found herself trapped once more in the Great Hall under the iron net, but when she tried to transform Diaval into a dragon but the spell would fail, and he would be hacked to bloody bits right in front of her eyes. Usually they came in brief, vague, horrific fragments; the metal searing her skin as she lost consciousness, Stephan twisting her as they fell so that she hit the ground on her back—at which point she promptly jolted awake. But worst of all was the one she'd started to have lately—the one when she would bestow a soft kiss on Aurora's cheek and it wouldn't work. Somehow or other, the blue eyes would never open, and Maleficent knew, without words , hat it was her fault. Her love had faltered, or a trace of vengeance had still lingered, and the kiss failed to wake Aurora. The princess lay there for years upon years, perfect, precious, preserved, and lost forever.

When Maleficent woke from that dream, she would immediately rise and go to the stretch of springy turf beneath a willow, where Aurora slept. Maleficent would steal over to where she lay and sit on a stone beside her, breathing in deep shudders, the tremors in her body falling still as she watched her adopted daughter. Aurora looked so innocent as she slept, so utterly at ease. No nightmares plagued her dreams, Maleficent thought fondly as she gazed on the pale, slumbering face. The new queen of the Moors slept far too soundly.

_I remember you said, "Don't leave me here alone"_

_But all that's dead and gone and passed tonight_

"Ah!" Maleficent jolted awake, shuddering. Her wings wrapped around her body, which had curled in on itself. She buried her face in the moss beneath her, tears soaking into the soft, rough greenery, the choked sounds of her tears muffled by the ground. Wiping her face and eyes with her hands did nothing to stop the flood of tears. Nothing could stop the weeping which came with that one dream, nothing except…

The soft sounds of rustling feet and cloth brought Maleficent out of her mind, and she tried to stifle her sobbing with her mouth. She tried to hold perfectly still, her convulsive breathing the only sounds coming from her.

Silence. Maleficent began to move, shakily pulling herself into an upright position. But she froze.

Aurora was not lying in her grassy bed where she should be. A moon-white face glowed in the shadows. Even in the dark, Maleficent knew that face.

"What…are you doing?" She knew her voice sounded awful, choked and hoarse.

Instead of replying, Aurora drew closer. Maleficent could see the glitter of her eyes in the starlight.

A soft slender hand reached out and cupped the faery's jaw. Maleficent opened her mouth to gasp but her surprise stopped all sound. Then Aurora's thumb slid over the tears on Maleficent's cheek, gently wiping the tears away.

"How…," Maleficent didn't need to finish the sentence. Aurora knelt before her, eyes wide and glistening in the night.

"Diaval told me. He…he said you'd been waking up lately with nightmares. But he said you were too proud to accept help from him. He told me I might be able to talk to you...do something about it."

Maleficent opened her mouth to speak, but the words died on her tongue as she looked into Aurora's face. She simply shook her head.

"Diaval is an incurable worrywart." She said it with a muffled laugh that still sounded like a sob, and took all the sting out of it.

"Why do you cry after you wake up?" Aurora looked up. She was young, and still very innocent, but sometimes her perceptiveness surprised even her godmother. And her godmother seldom admitted that anyone could shake or startle _her._

Maleficent closed her eyes and took a deep breath. The words slipped out before she could think it through and consciously decide whether or not to show weakness. Now, she felt the need to tell the truth, to be open.

"Because…I almost lost you." She let out a shuddering breath. "And sometimes, I dream that I did."

The corners of Aurora's mouth spread and turned up just a little bit.

"You haven't lost me," she said quietly. "It worked. I woke up, and just in time."

"But I came so close." Maleficent hadn't realized she'd taken the girl's hands until she felt her wince under her convulsive grip. "If I had held any resentment towards you, or anything, the kiss might not have worked."

"But you didn't. And it did work." Aurora rose up off of her knees.

Then she did something that the older woman had no way to prepare for. Before Maleficent could move or reply, Aurora gently pushed her down onto her back, then she lay down beside her, holding her godmother's hands.

"Go to sleep," her whisper floated onto the night air like a child's prayer. "I'm staying right here so I can keep the bad dreams away."

"Aurora-,"

"It's all right." Aurora then smiled up into her face, the expression warming her face. "You're my fairy godmother. After all, you've looked after me for years. It's time I returned the favor."

Maleficent shut her eyes, not to obey Aurora, but to hide the sudden flood of tears. She kept her lids tight closed against the water in her eyes, but gradually, the sound of Aurora's steady breathing, and the feel of her small hands lulled Maleficent into a drowsy daze.

Before Aurora drifted back into her own dreams, she thought she heard a whisper. It was so soft, almost broken in the middle, that she never felt sure whether she'd imagined it or not.

But her heart told her that, before she went to sleep, her fairy godmother had whispered, "Thank…you…,"

_Just close your eyes_

_The sun is going down_

_You'll be alright_

_No one can hurt you now_

_Come morning light_

_You and I'll be safe and sound_


End file.
